Common modes of abdominal muscle exercise include sit ups, “ab crunches”, leg lifts, and kneeling roller assisted thrusts. When performing sit ups, an exerciser typically lies supine upon a flat surface with hands behind the head. In such position, the exerciser repeatedly flexes and extends from the waist between the supine position and a substantially doubled position wherein the exerciser's forehead approaches thighs or knees. A common apparatus for facilitating such sit up exercising motion comprises a flat oblongated padded board having a “T” bar at its foot for engaging and holding the anterior aspects of the exerciser's feet while exercise progresses.
Ab crunches are similar to sit ups with the exception that the exerciser's legs remain flexed with knees raised and with soles of feet pointing downward. In performing ab crunches, the exerciser's bodily motion focuses upon repeatedly tensing and releasing abdominal muscles for bowing the spine, rather than performing gross flexions and extension of the upper body from the waist. Apparatus for facilitating such ab crunch exercising motion typically comprises a flat board having low ledge or bar for engaging and holding the anterior aspects of the exerciser's feet.
In performing leg lifts, an exerciser lies supine upon a floor or flat board and repeatedly moves straightened legs upwardly and downwardly. Exercise equipment for facilitating such leg lift exercise typically comprises an oblongated flat board having a “T” handle at its head, such handle allowing an exerciser to manually anchor his or her upper body upon the board.
In performing wheel assisted abdomen exercising thrusts, an exerciser typically kneels upon a flat floor surface and grasps in left and right hands a wheel having axially extending left and right rotatable handles. The exerciser places such wheel upon the ground, and bodily thrust forwardly from the knees, rolling the wheel forwardly along the floor surface. Upon forwardly and rearwardly repeating such motion in a reciprocating fashion, abdominal muscle exercise is achieved.
A problem associated with articles and apparatus for facilitating the above described abdominal muscle exercises is that they are cumulatively bulky, they are cumulatively difficult to store, they are not economically obtained, and individual articles of such exercise equipment are subject to being separated from others or misplaced or lost.
The instant inventive abdominal muscle exercise machine solves or ameliorates problems noted above by providing a unitary apparatus which is capable of facilitating all of the above described abdominal muscle exercises, which is configurable for compact storage, which is mechanically simple and which is economically fabricated and maintained.